Good game. Would watch again. The Yankees thoroughly demolished the Orioles on Saturday night. The game had been decided before the end of the second inning. The final score: 16-3. The Yankees have won four straight games and outscored their opponents 41-6 (41-6!) in the process. They are now 36-23 with a +104 run differential this season. That’s tied with the Astros for the best run differential in baseball. I enjoy the 2017 Yankees very much.
Over Early
We’ve seen an awful lot of Chris Tillman over the years — only David Price (33), James Shields (23), and Jon Lester (22) have more starts against the Yankees than Tillman (20) since 2010 — and this just isn’t the same guy anymore. He had a shoulder issue last season and missed the start of this season recovering, and there’s just no life on his pitches. There’s nothing behind his fastball, his curveball is loopy, his location is awful. It’s pretty bad.
Fortunately, Tillman pitches for the Orioles, not the Yankees, so all those lifeless fastballs and rolling curveballs contributed to a six-run first inning and a three-run second inning by the Bronx Bombers. Let’s recap that first inning with an annotated play-by-play, since there’s a whole lot going on.
(1) The most amazing thing about that six-run first inning? All the damage happened with two outs. Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks made two quick outs on seven pitches. Then seven straight Yankees reached base with two outs. Geez. Six runs has to be close to the most runs scored this season by any team in an inning in which the first two batters made outs, right? I have to think so.
(2) I’m pretty sure the ball was out of the park before Aaron Judge completed his follow through on the home run. It was a rocket down the left field line that stayed fair by a few feet. The exit velocity: 121.1 mph. 121.1 mph! It is the hardest hit base hit in baseball since Statcast was introduced on Opening Day 2015. That is insane. The home run was No. 20* of the season for Judge.
* Officially, it’s his 19th home run, but I still haven’t forgotten about that stupid triple.
(3) The next three runs happened in a hurry. Seven total pitches. I didn’t expect Matt Holliday to score on Starlin Castro’s double to left field, and Gary Sanchez was able to pick up the runners with a hard-hit single to left. Gary is really starting to feel it at the plate. You can see it. He’s on almost everything. Or maybe that’s just a product of facing post-injury Price and Tillman within the last few days. Either way, the single stretched the lead to 3-0.
(4) Can we talk about how good Didi Gregorius has been this season? He’s flying under the radar given everything else that has been going on. Gregorius came into this game hitting .322/.344/.473 (118 wRC+) on the season after coming back from the shoulder injury, and he smacked a first pitch two-run home run off Tillman to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead. That officially made it a big inning. Three runs is a good inning. Five runs is a big inning. My blog, my rules.
(5) But wait! The Yankees didn’t stop there. I love those extra tack-on runs after a home run “kills the rally” and caps off the big inning. Chase Headley walked and stole second without a throw, then scored on Chris Carter’s hard-hit single. Carter’s been hitting the ball much better the last week or so. He hit about three balls right at the third baseman during the Red Sox series. Headley and Carter, the fan favorites, teamed up for that sixth run.
(6) Man, it must suck being the guy who makes two outs in a big inning, as Gardner did in the first. There’s always that one guy who doesn’t join the party, you know?
The six-run first inning was only the start for the offense. Castro turned it loose in a 3-0 count — Tillman had thrown eleven straight balls before that — for a three-run home run in the second inning, ending Tillman’s evening. That made it 9-0 Yankees. Then, in the fourth, Holliday lifted a three-run home run into the right field short porch off Stefan Crichton. Glad to see he was able to find work after Jurassic Park. The Holliday dinger gave the Yankees a 12-0 lead. They scored 12 runs before making their tenth out.
The Yankees added their 13th and 14th runs in the fifth inning on a Judge double to left field. A Gardner single and a Hicks double — the double was a pop-up that fell in after J.J. Hardy and Trey Mancini collided in shallow left field — set that one up. See? Gardner and Hicks got in on the act. Judge doubled three pitches after a hit-by-pitch wasn’t called. It grazed his sleeve as he moved out of the way. Replays showed it pretty clearly. No one noticed. The at-bat continued and Judge doubled in two more runs. This team, man.
The Guy On The Mound Is Pretty Good Too
This game will be remembered for the offense and understandably so, but holy smokes, how about Luis Severino? Yet another dominant outing for the youngest player on the roster. He didn’t allow his first baserunner until walking Mark Trumbo to start the fifth inning, and he didn’t allow his first hit until Mancini served a single to right two batters later. Severino escaped that little jam — the Yankees were already up 12-0 at the time — with a strikeout and a weak tapper back to the mound.
Severino allowed four baserunners in seven innings of work. There was the Trumbo walk and Mancini single in the fifth. In the sixth, Ruben Tejada drew a walk and was immediately erased with a double play grounder. Chris Davis hung a run on Severino with a seventh inning solo home run into the visitor’s bullpen. Too bad he couldn’t escape with no runs allowed, but whatever. Two hits, two walks, one run, eight strikeouts in seven innings. That would be the story of the game if the offense hadn’t blown up.
On the season, Severino now has a 2.75 ERA (3.20 FIP) in 12 starts and 75.1 innings. He’s allowed no more than two runs in each of his last five starts, and in six of his last seven starts. His 4.67 K/BB ratio — that’s 84 strikeouts and 18 walks — is fourth highest in the AL and ninth highest among all pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Time to start the All-Star Game campaign. Sevy has been unreal this year.
Leftovers
Joe Girardi had a little fun with his late-inning replacements. Ronald Torreyes replaced Castro at second in the fifth inning and Rob Refsnyder replaced Gardner in the sixth. That’s the easy stuff. In the eighth, Sanchez moved to first base (!) and Austin Romine took over behind the plate. Carter moved from first base to right field (!!!) to give Judge a breather. No balls were hit Carter’s way. Sanchez had to receive some throws from other infielders, all routine.
I don’t even know where to start with the offense. First of all, Sanchez hit a two-run home run in the eighth to make it 16-2 Yankees. He’s now hitting 1.000/1.000/4.000 as a first baseman. Better keep him there long-term. Every starter had a hit and every starter reached base at least twice except Gardner. Only once, in the seventh inning, did the Yankees go down 1-2-3.
Three hits for Judge, who was a triple shy of the cycle and is now hitting .332/.439/.678 (195 wRC+) on the season. Judge, Holliday, Castro, Sanchez, and Gregorius went a combined 13-for-20 (.650) with five doubles, five homers, three walks, and two strikeouts as the 3-4-5-6-7 hitters. Goodness. As a team, the Yankees hit .450/.522/.975 in this game.
Gio Gallegos and Tommy Layne mopped up the last two innings. Girardi got Severino out of there after only 89 pitches. No reason to push him in a game like this. Save those bullets for another day. Gallegos allowed a solo homer to Joey Rickard and Layne allowed a junky run. I blame Layne for the Yankees not being in sole possession of the best run differential in baseball right now.
And finally, Layne allowed his run in the ninth on a Caleb Joseph single. That broke a string of 45 consecutive hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position by Yankees pitchers. The 0-for-45 stretch is tied for the third longest since RISP numbers started being recorded in 1974.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and updated standings, head over to ESPN. For the video highlights, go to MLB.com. We have a Bullpen Workload page. Here’s the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The final game of the homestand before the Yankees head out west. Chad Green is starting that game, not Domingo German as previously reported. Girardi confirmed Green is getting the ball during his postgame press conference. German is coming up as the long man, however. Layne was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot. Anyway, Sunday’s game is a regular old 1pm ET start, thankfully.
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